The following is a bit gruesome, so if you are sensitive to loss right now, perhaps you might want to skip this post....

So, I had just called in sick from work this morning with a cold when my phone rang.  Seemed strange at 7:30 am and I thought it might be work calling back for some reason, but it was my neighbor calling to say his wife had seen a dead dog at the bottom of our hill on her way out this morning.   They had seen the dog loose yesterday, but then saw a car moving slowly near it and thought someone else had dealt with it.   Apparently the other party was not able to catch her and she must have run off.

Anyway, I dried my hair and got dressed and went out, and the poor thing looked like she'd probably been hit by a car (based on how her body was lying).  I don't think she suffered; looks like she hit head-first into the dirt pretty hard and probably broke her neck.  She looked like someone's pet.  I'm pretty sure she was an English Bull Terrier, though I've seen "pitbulls" of a similar type and she was at a funny angle so I couldn't be sure.   She had on a pretty red leather collar with metal diamonds on it and looked like she'd been well cared for.  

I called the police and they sent animal control, who let me know they would take her body to the shelter and keep her for a time so if anyone was searching for a lost dog, they'd have a chance to identify her.

It made me very sad.  Ironically enough, a couple days ago someone stopped us and asked if we'd seen a grey pitbull that had escaped from his friends' apartment.  We called the number and described the dog (one person's "grey" might be another's "white") but thankfully he called back to report their dog was found. 

I've had dogs get loose more than once and how things turn out is luck as much as anything.  Most house dogs are clueless about cars and don't seem to fear them; I guess they lack the imagination to imagine what such a large moving object might do to them.  This dog was white and should have been easily visible, but if she darted out at the last moment....   

I guess there is no lesson here, but as a dog owner it made me so sad to think that someone lost a friend today.